Labour civil war as Andy Burnham goads MPs to say they're 'not happy' with Starmer

Andy Burnham has fanned the flames of Labour's rebellion, by saying that if he were a Labour MP he would be telling Sir Keir Starmer he is "not happy" and that his Government needs to "change" its benefit cuts. The Manchester Mayor, who ran for the Labour leadership against Jeremy Corbyn in 2015, told The Times: "If I was in parliament now, I would be saying 'I'm not happy, you need to change this.'"

Attacking Labour's sweeping changes to the benefits system announced last week, the Liverpool-born mayor added: "We have a disabled people's panel in Greater Manchester, who even before any of this were saying 'the system is punishing'. When I first got in parliament my dad said, 'never vote for policies that take money off people who've got no ability to make that up'. I always remember that."

His comments come after 25 Labour MPs said they would not back the Government's benefit reforms. Last week, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall revealed the "biggest shake up to the welfare system in a generation" in an effort to slash the country's benefits expenditure by around £5bn.

However, some of the reforms, such as changes to Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) and the freezing of the health element of Universal Credit has been met by strong opposition within the governing party.

In response to the Chancellor's Spring Statement, Labour's Stella Creasy wrote on X: "I don't support the welfare reform plans as a response and think there is an alternative course of action that can ensure fiscal stability and social justice".

Meanwhile, Diane Abbott posted: "Voters have already had enough of austerity. They cannot face any more."

Echoing the criticism, Mr Burnham went on: "There is a question about how much you can be driven by [the fiscal rules], I think there has to be more flexibility. The world is turbulent now. We are going to have to be able to protect people from some of these shocks."

He argued that a wealth tax could offer the Treasury an alternative way of bolstering its coffers: "I think there is a case for looking at taxes on wealth. I look at the way society has changed in the last 20 or 30 years. Even in the pandemic, the very wealthiest got very much more wealthy."